


What Festers With In

by Earthsbestdefender



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Post Civil War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-20
Updated: 2019-06-25
Packaged: 2020-05-15 06:00:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 9,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19289608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Earthsbestdefender/pseuds/Earthsbestdefender
Summary: “I thought you would have learned from your good friend Captain Rogers that lying to protect someone doesn’t work. It just makes things worse. I am sorry you had to learn that the hard way, and not from someone else’s mistake,” Darin shook his head sadly, “It is a little bit sad that Stark was always the one who suffered from the lies.”





	1. Lies Lead to Down Fall

"Tony! Tony!" Natasha's urgent call pulled Tony out of his hazy unconsciousness, "Tony, buddy you gotta wake up."

"What are you… why are you here?" Tony groaned and sat up a little, his head spinning, and his eyes finding it impossible to focus on anything in the dimly lit room.

"You don't remember?" Natasha questioned.

Tony squinted at her through the dark room.

"Oh I remember alright," Tony growled, "I remember you letting Rogers go, and I remember you telling me to watch my back and then you left." He could tell even in the dark of the room that she winced, "You left. Just like everyone else. How is Vision and Wanda's romance fairing by the way? Vis doesn't tell me anything. He just lies to my face," Tony hissed, "But I guess that's natural, considering the people who raised him."

"Tony that's not fair-"

"Damn straight it's not fair," Tony spat, "You left, and hung me out to fucking dry!"

Natasha shook her head with a sigh, "Tony can you please focus-"

"What the hell do you think I've been doing for the past 4 months!" Tony shouted angrily. 

"Snap out of it!" Natasha hissed angrily, and slapped him across the face.

"Aw, what the fuck?!" Tony snarled and rubbed the stinging side of his face.

"What do you remember, and what I mean by that is what do you remember from right before you just woke you up."

Tony's snappy comeback died in his throat as he fully took in their surroundings and attempted to recall where he had been, and what he’d been doing. He shook his head a little attempting to clear the haze around those particular memories, but he got nothing.

"You can't remember, can you," Natasha stated boldly.

"I will," Tony replied coolly.

Nat snorted.

"Okay. You obviously know more than I do, what are we dealing with?" Tony finally gave in, “What the hell did you get us into?”

“I’m not exactly sure,” Natasha replied, “I was picking up weapons from a locker drop. You showed up. We were about to fight, and then an EMP went off. It fried your suit-”

“Wait. I was in a suit?” Tony demanded sitting up more alertly.

If he had been in a suit before they had ended up here, than that meant that who ever had taken them had his suit now, because he certainly didn’t have it with him.

“Yes, you were in the mark 47, I believe,” Natasha answered.

“That means who ever took us has my suit!” Tony cried leaping to his feet; he ignored the splitting pain that shot through his head.

“Wow. He really is a genius.”

Tony spun around just as the door to the cell opened and a tall man with his long hair pulled neatly back into a ponytail stepped into the room. Tony clenched his fists.

“Tony! Don’t!” Natasha cried as he leapt at the intruder.

The man grabbed him around the throat when he was mid leap. There was a crackle of electricity and white hot electric pain shocked through Tony’s body as a small metal device was pushed against his stomach. He heard himself scream in pain as the electricity burned through his body. White spots exploded across his vision.

The man dropped Tony, and he hit the hard stone ground with a gasp of pain. He curled in on himself trying desperately to fight back the tears stinging his eyes. 

“Drake please secure him,” The pony-tailed man said coolly; Tony could feel the man glaring coldly down at him.

“What are you doing?” Natasha demanded as a rough hand grabbed around Tony’s collar and yanked him to his feet.

Tony tried to pull away from the big man holding his shirt collar, but received a heavy slap in the face. He bit back his cry of pain.

“It is very simple Ms. Romanov. We have one of your close friends, and you have the location of the rouge Avengers. I think we both have things the other wants, so we can do a peaceful exchange.”

“You have a problem,” Tony spat from where he was being held up, “She doesn’t give two fucks what happens to me.”

Tony wasn’t entirely sure if this was true, but whatever these people wanted with Steve and his team it couldn’t be good. Tony owed them nothing, but still they had once been his friends so he wasn’t going to let anything happen to them. The world might need them.

Tony’s outburst was met with a hard knee being slammed into his back. This time he was unable to bite back his grunt of pain.

“Don’t talk.”

“Is this true?” The man with the ponytail turned his gaze to Nat, who froze like a deer in the headlights.

 

Natasha looked over at Tony who was seething in anger, and looked back to the blond man who had asked the question. If she told the truth, than they would most likely torture him and use him against her. 

“You’re not going to get anything out of me. I don’t give a rat’s ass what happens to him. He betrayed everything the Avengers stand for,” Natasha stated as boldly and confidently as she could, "He isn't my friend, I hate everything he's done to us."

“Good. That means we only have to feed one of you,” The man said with a grin, and faster than Natasha could react he pulled his gun out and fired.

“No!” Natasha screamed as Tony sank to the floor in a limp heap.

“Oh so she does care,” The man sneered, “He is your hourglass. Tell us what we want and we won’t let him die.”

With that Drake and the man with the ponytail slipped out of the room and slammed the door. Nat was at Tony’s side in an instant. Blood was already pooling on the ground beneath him.

“Tony?” Nat pleaded as she rolled him over on his back.

Blood had already covered his once white shirt as it leaked in a small bubbling well from his chest, far too close to his heart.

“Tony come on, stay with me,” Nat begged as she pushed her hand against the wound.

“Weren’t supposed...t..too back meu pp,” Tony mumbled and blood dribbled down his chin.

“I’m sorry,” Nat whispered, “I didn’t think they would do that. I was trying to protect you.”

Tony shook his head a little, “You… don’tt...alk.”

“If I don’t you’ll die!” Natasha replied urgently, trying desperately to keep the panic out of her voice.

“Not gonna make it…” Tony rasped around the clot of blood that drizzled out of his mouth.

“No you idiot. You don’t get to die,” Natasha retorted.

“Mm'sorry… for- for everything...”

Tony’s pained eyes went blank, and his head fell back as he went limp in her arms.

“No! Tony! Please...no!” Nat cried and pressed her fingers against his bloody neck, “Please!”

She searched desperately for his pulse, but found nothing.

“Please no,” She let a sob tear through her as she pulled his lifeless body close to her, “I’m sorry Tony… I’m sorry…”

The door opened, and the man with the ponytail stepped into the room with five other men.

“Well he didn’t last nearly as long as I thought he would,” The man chuckled, and pulled out a gun.

“Stay the hell away from us!” Natasha growled and pulled Tony’s body closer to her.

“I’m sorry Ms. Romanov,” The man apologized.

Something whizzed through the air and struck her in the neck. 

“The hell?” Nat gasped as she fell back, her vision blurring out of focus. A rough hand grabbed and pulled her away from Tony's body.

"No…" She cried as she was shoved to the ground a few feet away from him.

The last thing she saw before her vision went black was her captors dragging Tony Stark's lifeless body behind them as they left the room. 

 


	2. News Spreads Death's Shadow

“Um… Steve you need to see this!” Sam called urgently from the front of the jet, Steve could tell from his tone that something was horribly wrong.

“What is it Sam?” Steve demanded as he came to a stand still behind his friend who had his laptop pulled up.

“I- I don’t know,” Sam replied, uncertainty wavering in his voice, “I don’t even know if it’s real. It just popped up in the inbox…”

“Show me,” Steve ordered.

Sam took a deep breath and pulled up the tab on the computer. Steve’s stomach plunged, and he almost choked on the sudden lack of air in his body as the image came full size. Tony was leaned against a white wall. Dark red blood covered the entire front of his shirt. His head was flopped to the side limply, and his deep brown eyes stared wide and blank at nothing at all. All of the light and life that had once burned with them was gone. They were hollow and lifeless. Steve covered his mouth with one hand and sank back onto the closest seat in the jet.

“That’s not… it can’t… he can’t…” Steve choked as Tony’s blank stare tore like claws at him, “Is this real?”

Steve already knew the answer even before his eyes went to the message smeared in blood on the wall behind Tony. 

WE’RE COMING

“I… I don’t know,” Sam whispered and rested his hand on Steve’s shoulder.

Steve barely even felt the touch as he remained staring in utter shock at the picture of his murdered friend. He couldn’t force himself to tear his gaze away.

“What’d… how did this…” Steve stammered unable to form his words.

He had known Tony and Nat had been taken. Him and the team had been searching endlessly for them. Both of them. 

“Do we know anything about Nat?” Steve finally managed to form an entire sentence.

“They didn’t send anything.”

“So she’s still…” Steve trailed off.

“As far as we know,” Sam replied gently.

Guilt and panic wormed inside of Steve. This was his fault. He had torn the Avengers apart. If he hadn’t than Tony and Nat wouldn’t have been fighting, and they wouldn’t have been caught, and Tony wouldn’t be… He wouldn’t be dead.

“We need to go home,” Steve whispered hoarsely.

“Is that-”

“We can’t keep this to ourselves. Rhodey and Pepper, and whoever else need to know.”

“Okay,” Sam replied in solemn resignation, and closed the computer, freeing Steve from the image Tony’s dead body and blank stare. 

 

* * *

 

Her head pounded mercilessly as she slowly came too. Bright orange light stabbed at Natasha’s eyes even through her closed eyelids. She made a slow attempt to cover her eyes with her hands, but cold steel yanked against her wrists and stopped her. 

“The hell?” She moaned and made a second attempt before opening her eyes to come to the dizzying realization that she was cuffed to a chair. She tugged her arms up harder in some desperate attempt to get lucky and free herself, “What the hell is this?!” She shouted to the empty room.

She tugged a second time, and this time she looked down to see dark red blood still smeared on her hands. Tony’s blood.

“What did you do with him!?” She howled and fought with restraints.

She had to get free, and find him. She had to save him. He was somewhere in this place dying.

“Tony!” She screamed as loud as her dry throat would allow.

Her shouts for her friend died in throat as her memory came flooding back, and hit her like a wave of pain. She hadn’t been able to find his pulse. Tony had died in her arms because of the lie she had told. She had killed him.

“Assholes! Why don’t you come in here so I can kick your asses!” Nat yelled, finding her voice again. They would pay.

“Sorry it took me so long to get to you,” The ponytale man said as he slipped into the room, “I didn’t properly introduce myself last night. I am Darin-”

“I don’t give a fuck what your name is! Murderer!” Natasha spat.

“I really am sorry about that. If I had known he was your friend I wouldn’t have shot him, but you said he wasn’t, so I am really not the one to blame here.”

“You will pay for what you did!” Nat snarled, “when I get free I will rip your entrails out and shove them up your-”

“THAT is quite enough,” Darin interrupted her, “Do you want to see what I sent your friends?” The man asked with a morbid twinkle in his eyes.

Nat’s stomach twisted in unease as Darin smiled at her with a devious smirk plastered on his face.

“If you touched his body I swear I will make you suffer like never imagined possible!” Natasha roared, seething anger worked its way through her body as she twisted her wrists in her restraints. No matter what happened, she was going to kill him, and it wouldn’t be nearly as quick as Tony’s death had been.

“Nonsense. I would dream of doing anything to such a fine specimen,” Darin replied with a sly hiss.

The way he worded his reply made Nat’s skin crawl. She needed to get free, find Tony, and escape this horrific place. Tony may be dead, but she wasn’t going to leave him here in this terrible place with these evil people who would do goodness knows what.

“I just took a nice picture of him and sent it to all his friends,” Darin said as he placed a framed picture down on the small plastic table in front of Nat. Her stomach shot into her throat at the sight of the photo of Tony’s limp body sitting beneath big words written in what could only be blood. His blank gaze burned holes in Natasha.

“You monster…” She choked, and squeezed her eyes shut a little to late. The image was already ingrained in her mind, and she could still see it clear as day in her head.

“I am not the one that lied and got my friend killed,” Darin replied smoothly.

“Shut up! I was trying to protect him!” Nat screamed.

Darin smiled coldly, “I thought you would have learned from your good friend Captain Rogers that lying to protect someone doesn’t work. It just makes things worse. I am sorry you had to learn that the hard way, and not from someone else’s mistake,” Darin shook his head sadly, “It is a little bit sad that Stark was always the one who suffered from the lies.”

“No! You did this! You shot him!” Nat cried.

“Because you told me too.”

“No…”

She didn’t know why she was arguing. He was right. This was her fault.

“Now I am going to let you stew on that for a while I go get some other things done,” Darin said and made his way to the door, “Enjoy your time with your thoughts.”

The heavy metal door closed with a boom, and Nat winced involuntarily.

She had killed one of her best friends.

* * *

 

“Is he ready yet?” Darin asked stepping into the testing room full of doctors.

“Not just yet sir. He is still in phase two, and then we have to do the re-purposing,” One of the doctors answered.

“Can you speed up the process? I want to start having my fun.”

“We can try, but it could be dangerous to do that.”

“Well. Fine. Make sure he is stable. I don’t need anymore of a mess.”

“Yes sir.”

Darin grinned and slid his hands into his pockets as he watched the burning orange glow of Extremis writhe with in Tony Stark’s viens.


	3. Choices are offered

Pepper hadn’t moved since Steve and the team had arrived at the compound and shared what they had been sent. The teenage kid that had been on the compound had stormed out of the room in a fit of anger and obvious grief. Happy had followed him out. Steve wasn’t exactly sure who he was, but now was not the time to question it. Rhodey was the only one of the people gathered who seemed to still be of some form of functional state of mind.

“Is that all you have?” Rhodey asked from his place standing next to Pepper who was sitting, staring blankly into space, obviously still in shock.

“I’m afraid so,” Steve replied keeping his head bowed, they had taken the image down off the screen, but it was still to finely engraved in his mind for him to feel comfortable standing up straight.

“And you have no idea who they are?”

Steve shook his head, “We were hoping you guys might have something,” Steve admitted.

“The only thing we had before you showed up with… with  _ that,  _ was the in suit footage that Friday archived before he got hit with the specialized EMP.”

“I assume you have looked through the-”

“What if it’s fake?” Pepper said suddenly lifting her head.

“Pepper…”

“No. What if it’s photo shopped, or completely made up, or-”

“Pepper,” Rhodey whisper, “Friday ran all the tests-”

“But it has to be!” Pepper cried and stood up.

“Pepp-”

“No!” Pepper’s shout made Steve wince.

Rhodey gave Steve an apologetic look.

“You can talk to Friday, and go through the footage yourself. I am going to take care of Pepper,” Rhodey said as he guided the distraught woman toward the door.

“I don’t need taking care of!” Pepper protested, “We need to find Tony before they actually do something to him.”

“Come on Pepper,” Rhodey guided her out of the room despite her protests.

Steve sighed and sat down in the closest chair as soon as they were gone.

“Friday?”

“What can I do for you Captain?” The AI replied, her normal chipper attitude was nowhere to be found. Steve was pretty sure she herself was mourning, if that was at all possible for an AI.

“Please pull up the footage from before you lost connection with Tony’s suit.”

* * *

  
  


Natasha yanked her head up as Darin entered the room with a grin plastered on his face.

“How are we doing?” He asked and leaned against the wall.

“Like you care,” Natasha snarled.

She had no idea how long he had been gone, but she knew it had been a good many number of hours.

He looked a little offended at her comment.

“Contrary to popular belief I do care,” Darin replied, “I want to know if you are up for a visitor, or whether I should tell him to come back. Now before you say anything, remember we value honesty here.”

Natasha only glared at him.

"I take that as a no," Darin replied and stepped back to the door, "which is a shame. He really wanted to see you." 

"What are you playing at you sick son of a bitch," Natasha growled, "If you're going to torture me, than hurry up and do it, but I have to warn you, I won't talk."

"And why is that?" Darin asked, obviously intrigued.

"Because you murdered the only reason I would talk," She stated.

She almost wanted them to try to get her to talk so she could at least get amusement out of how frustrated they would be when she refused to talk. She had a high pain tolerance. There was nothing they could do that would make her talk.

"We'll see about that," Darin chuckled while he paced, "I'm curious, do you have a preference as to who works with you?"

"I get a choice?" Natasha questioned.

"Why of course. You are my guest."

"And yet you killed my friend," Nat snarled bitterly.

"Ms. Romanov, we have been over that little incident many times now. You said you didn't care what happened to him," Drake stated with an eye roll, "But that doesn't matter. What matters right now is your decision."

"You haven't given me my options," Nat commented.

“I was getting to that,” The man replied with ease.

“Well hurry up and get to it. I’m bored,” Natasha stated.

“Very well, would you rather have one of  _ my _ friends work with you, or one of  _ your  _  friends?”

“One of my friends?!” Natasha asked in both shock and bewilderment.

“One of your friends it is,” Darin clapped his hands together gleefully.

“That’s not- No- wait,” Nat cried in dismay.

“Your choice has been made,” Darin sang.

“What did you do?” Natasha cried as he ducked out of the room.

“You’ll see!” He laughed as the door closed leaving her in silence.

 


	4. Demons are released

Steve sighed and sipped his coffee.

“Show me frame by frame the EMP going off,” Steve ordered.

“Yes sir,” Friday obediently pulled up the last few instants from Tony’s suit.

“Analyze all of the faces in those frames. I want to know who every single person was. We can start a file and um… put things together that way. See what associations they have, criminal records, no records whatsoever. Pay attention to those people. The people with absolutely nothing are usually the ones who you have to watch out for,” Steve rambled as he looked over the files popping up the tablet below him.

“Still at it?” Steve looked up to see Rhodey coming into the room.

“Couldn’t sleep,” Steve replied; every time he closed his eyes images of Stark’s blank stare bored into him and made it impossible to sleep.

“Likewise,” Rhodey replied heaving a deep sigh and sitting down across from Steve.

“How are you holding up?” Steve asked as he thumbed through the files below him; there was nothing even remotely helpful.

Rhodey sighed and leaned back in his chair, “Tony was my best friend.”

Steve nodded. He knew the two had been extremely close ever since they had been college.

“I don’t want to believe it’s true, but…” Rhodey sighed again, “He looked… you can’t fake what we saw.”

“I’m sorry,” Steve whispered.

“I know, but it doesn’t bring him back,” Rhodey stated in a low dangerous tone.

Steve nodded slowly and turned back to his tablet, that still held no answers.

“I said I’d protect him, you know?” Rhodey mumbled.

Steve looked up, furrowing his eyebrows. Rhodey’s eyes danced awkwardly away from Steve’s gaze.

“I promised him,” Rhodey whispered, “It was a long time ago, and I don’t think he even remembers it, but I- I promised him.”

Steve leaned back in his chair and studied Rhodey closely.

“You wanna get a drink?” Steve offered, it was really all he had to offer.

“I would love to, but Nat needs us. We both need to be sober and decisive if something comes up,” Rhodey replied with a sigh.

“Sober yes,” Steve replied, “I don’t know how decisive either of us will be.”

Rhodey chuckled weakly, “You got me there.”

Steve hadn’t been kidding in anyway. When they found the people who had murdered Tony and kidnapped Nat he would kill them if Rhodey didn’t beat him to it. He was pretty sure there would be no stopping Rhodey. The man was calm, too calm, dangerously calm, but Steve was pretty sure sooner or later he would snap.

* * *

 

The heavy metal door to the room opened slowly. Nat’s breath hitched in her throat, as the mark 47 stepped through the door into the room.

“What kind of sick joke is this?!” Natasha shouted at nothing in particular.

They had Tony’s suit up and functional, why would they just use it to interrogate her?

“Not a joke.”

Nat’s shouts choked off in her throat as the unmistakable voice of Tony Stark came from with in the suit.

“Tony?” She choked.

The Iron Man suit leaned haphazardly against the wall.

“Surprise!” The mask opened to reveal Tony giving her a ridiculous grin.

“What did you do!” Natasha screamed yanking her head around to face the security camera on the wall, “I will kill all of you!!!”

“Nat. Honey I’m right here,” Tony chuckled, “I can talk and answer your questions, that camera really kind of can’t,” Tony stepped toward her, and gently guided her face around so she was staring into his cold brown eyes. There was something horribly off about them, “How hard did they hit your head? I thought you smart enough not to talk to cameras.”

Nat pulled her head away from Tony’s cold metal grip.

“Don’t touch me,” She growled.

Tony pulled his hand back in surprise, hurt dashed briefly into his eyes.

“Well that was a little rude,” Tony stated, obviously insulted.

“What did they do to you?” Nat breathed.

The good old Tony Stark snark was there, but Tony seemed empty and hollow, like part of him was gone.

“Well they shot me in the heart, but that one is really more on you I think.”

“That’s not… I was trying to save you!” Natasha cried miserably.

“And that worked out so well,” Tony huffed and examined the nonexistent fingernails on his armored hand, “Unless you had a different plan in mind. Maybe that was your plan.”

“I would never!” Natasha cried.

Tony looked up at her, a dangerous orange glow came into his deep brown eyes, and the suit opened, allowing him to step out.

“It wouldn’t be the first time you chose them over me,” Tony’s voice was low and menacing.

“Tony?” Nat choked, “What did they do to you?”

Tony laughed. He threw his head back and laughed a cold brutal laugh.

“They opened my eyes.”

“No… Tony-”

“You never cared about me. None of you did. You used me,” Tony’s voice seethed with fury and pain, “And that stunt you pulled? You knew that you might talk if they tortured me, so you tried to get me killed!”

“No!”

“You expect me to believe that?!” Tony spat incredulously, “You tried to sacrifice me for the rouges.”

“No. I- I… Tony I was trying to save you from being tortured to death!” Natasha cried.

“You let them kill me!” Tony spat, “And for what?”

Nat squeezed her eyes shut and shook head.

“This isn’t real.” She stated.

Natasha gasped in pain as something burning hot grabbed around her throat. Her eyes shot open in shock from the sudden pain of heat searing through her throat, and she found herself looking into Tony's flaming glare that burned like a raging fire of fury and hatred.

“It is very real,” Tony growled. 

His once tame brown eyes burned and glowed a flaming orange. The veins on his neck and face glowed and seemed have fire dancing within them.

“What did they do to you?” Natasha couldn’t hold back her scream of pain as his fiery grip tightened, “Stop!”

Natasha had felt hot things. She had been a spy for a very long time, and had her fair share of painful encounters with hot objects, but this? It was different. It seared and stung, and burned, and at the same time felt like freezing ice blasting across her throat.

“Very real,” Tony’s tone was a low dangerous snarl as he glared into her eyes.

“Please…” Natasha choked.

Tony pulled his glowing hand away from her throat and took a step back. Nat coughed, and it ripped at her throat, and the skin throbbed and stung with every movement from her neck muscles. The glow went out of Tony’s body and he collapsed to his hands and knees. Something in his demeanor seemed to change as a shiver shook through his body.

“Tony?” Nat questioned cautiously.

“Nat?” Tony mumbled weakly, and looked up at her, pain shone in his deep brown eyes, “You have to warn them..”

“What?” Nat yanked at her restraints.

Tony seemed very much himself again.

“You… Warn-” Tony broke off into a fit coughing; blood spattered on the ground below him, “Please…” He whimper through his pained gasps, and then collapsed all the way.

“Tony!” Natasha cried and threw her whole weight against the restraints holding her down. She could see even from where she was that blood was beginning to spill across his grey t-shirt.

“I’m sorry…” He choked as the Iron Man suit that had previously been standing on sentry mode moved forward and grabbed a handful of his hair. He cried out in pain as the suit dragged him to the door. Tony left a red smear across the floor as he dragged away.

“Stop! Tony! No!” Natasha screamed on the top of her lungs and yanked at her restraints until she felt her right wrist pop. Pain exploded up her arm and she went lax, hissing a cursing in pain.


	5. Demons are faced

"Is there any security footage we're missing?" Steve asked.

Going through people's profiles had proven very uninformative.

"I am sorry Captain. I have pulled all of the security footage-"

"Friday pull the phone records from the area for the day. Pictures. Video all of it," Rhodey ordered as he stepped into the room.

"Can she do that?" Steve asked in shock. Having the AI hack into people's phones seemed like a serious violation people's privacy, and also highly un-doable.

"Yep."

"Security code authorization required," Friday replied to Rhodey's command.

"Warmachine 68," Rhodey stated with an eye roll.

"Pass code."

"Tiki 86," Rhodey said with a sigh.

Steve gave him an inquisitive look.

"College," Rhodey said with a shrug, "Run the sweep."

"Yes sir."

Steve figeted nervously. It seemed a little wrong hacking everyone's phones and personal photos.

* * *

 

"So that was fun, right?" Darin stepped into the room smiling from ear to ear. It had been hours since Tony had been dragged from the room.

"What the hell did you do to him!?" Natasha seethed and threw herself against the restraints tying her to the chair. Pain shot up her arm as her broken wrist pulled against her restraints.

"That is a very long story," Darin replied coolly, and one that you do not get an answer too."

"I swear I will kill if you hurt him anymore!" Natasha shouted.

"You have been making a lot of promises of death lately," Darin observed.

"Well you've been an ass," Natasha snarled.

"Rude, yet fair," Darin replied with a shrug, "Anyway, I just came to inform you that you no longer have any purpose here."

"What… why?" Natasha stammered. She knew what happened to prisoners who no longer had a purpose.

"Stark has been very forthcoming."

"He's lying to you. He would never give away where they are!" Natasha tried not to sound desperate.

"See under normal circumstances I would completely agree, but see Mr. Stark doesn't exactly have full control over what he tells us."

"What did you do!?"

"It was a nice blend of Extremis, and a few hours in the brain blender," Darin chuckled, "he gave us everything we needed."

"You- how…" Nat stammered.

"Extremis is a wonderful creation really. I mean it brought him back. We are still working out the exact dosage to use for what we need, but we have it pretty close."

"Was that a slip up there at the end?" Natasha demanded.

"A minor miss calculation. See it is very difficult to get it just right so it will keep him alive, but not save him," Darin explained loosely, "See the bullet grazed his heart, which is… very bad," Nat winced as he said this, "So after he died in your arms we took him, snapped the lovely picture right there," He tapped the picture of Tony's once dead body, "And then turned him over to the doctors who had interestingly enough developed the perfect form of Extremis. It only does partial regeneration, and when it burns itself out the healing goes away."

Natasha snapped her head up to glare at Darin.

"You sick bastard!" Natasha growled, "what the hell is the point of that?!"

"To keep him alive while we need him. Weren't you listening?" Darin said dubiously, "And also so we don't have to kill either of you."

"What?!" Natasha cried as the door to the room opened and Tony stepped in. His eyes glowed dangerously.

"You know what to do Stark," Darin patted Tony on the shoulder, and left the room. 

Tony turned his fiery gaze on Nat. Orange glow wormed through his body and down into hands.

"Tony. Listen to me. This isn't you," Nat whispered with a gulp.

Tony just gave her a contorted half smile and walked toward her slowly. She could see the heat rising off his body as he got closer. He got down on one knee in front of her and placed his hand gently on her knee. It took all of her strength not to scream in pain as heat tore up her body.

"No Nat. This is what you made me," Tony growled.

"Tony they did this to you. Please…" Nat gasped trying with all her might not scream.

Tony smiled coldly.

"This is your fault, and Rogers' fault. It is all of yours fault," Tony growled and lifted his hand from her knee. 

Nat took a deep breath as the pain slowed to a throb.

"You used me and then left," Tony hissed, "and you spat in my face on the way out."

"Tony I'm sorry," Natasha rasped as he placed his fiery hands on her forearms, sending searing pain through her body. She jerked in pain as she tried to pull away from him.

"You're only sorry because I have the strength and frame of mind to do what I should have done a long time ago,” Tony pressed his burning hand against her chest. Natasha was unable to hold back her scream of pain as his burning hand pressed over her heart, “I am going to take back what you and everyone else stole.”

“No, I’m sorry, for everything, for this, for-”

“Stop lying!” Tony seethed.

“I’m not lying,” Nat cried, “I didn’t mean for this to happen. I didn’t mean for any of this to happen. None of us did. We care about you Tony!”

“Than why did you leave me!?” Tony screamed; Natasha could see the pain deep with in his glowing eyes. She could see years of hurt and suffering converting into pure anger.

Natasha opened and closed her mouth a few times trying desperately to come up with something to say to him.

“Because you hate me!” Tony roared and grabbed her around the throat. He yanked her upward so hard the restraint around her wrists snapped. She gasped in pain at his burning touch.

“No Tony,” Natasha managed to keep her voice calm and even as she stared down into his flaming eyes from where she was dangling from his grip, “We left because we had too. Leaving hurt more than any of us ever would admit out loud.”

“You’re lying!” Tony roared and threw her to the ground a few feet away from him.

Nat shook her head and sat up.

“No Tony. We left, and when we did we left part of us behind. Nothing was the same. None of us were. You are family Tony. We shouldn’t have left you. It was a mistake. I am sorry."

“Stop saying that,” Tony grabbed her around the throat and pushed her up against the wall.

Every instinct inside of her was screaming to fight him, and free herself, but she ignored them. She wasn’t going to fight him. She would only do the bare minimum to keep herself alive.

“I am not going to fight you over this Tony,” Natasha gasped has his hand squeezed tighter around his throat, “You’re my family and I love you. “

Tony seemed to just stop. The dancing orange gleam in his eyes seemed to simmer down. Nat hated to take advantage of his shocked trance, but he would kill her if he squeezed her throat much more, so she pulled her feet up and slammed them into his chest. He released her as he fell back and crumpled to the floor. Nat sprang to her feet almost as soon as she hit the ground. Pain throbbed in the places where he had burned her, but she ignored the pain and put herself into a fighting stance, only to realize that Tony had not recovered from where he lay on the floor.

“Tony?” Nat cautiously moved closer to him.

A shiver ran through his body, and the angry orange glow in his veins slowly vanished. Natasha knelt down next to him and placed her hand on his shoulder.

“Don’t touch me!” Tony cried and shot up and scooted away from her.

Nat yanked her hand back.

“I don’t want too…” Tony trailed off, “Burn you.”

Nat could tell from the guilty look flooding into his gaze that he was looking at the burns on her neck, and arms.

“I-”

“It’s okay Tony,” Natasha assured him and scooted closer to him.

“What did I do?” Tony whined looking down at his hands.

“Nothing. Tony it’s fine. I’m okay,” Nat brushed his cheek with her hand, “It wasn’t your fault-”

“Well this is interesting.”

They both jerked their heads around to see Darin and two very muscular men step into the room and close the door behind them. Tony hopped to his feet with determination in his brown eyes. Nat rose to her feet behind him.

“You get the muscle and I’ll get ponytail guy,” Tony growled quietly.

A low orange began to work its way back into his fists.

“Be careful Tony. Once the extremis wears off you’re injury will open again,” Nat warned.

Tony popped his neck. “Then we better make this quick.”

With no further warning Tony leapt at Darin. Nat followed his lead and launched herself onto the first man who had come in. She pulled herself nimbly onto the man’s shoulders and with lighting fast speed she grabbed his head and expertly snapped his neck. She leapt from his body and grabbed the second man and finished him off with one swift twist. She spun around just on time to see Darin throw Tony to the ground with a crack as his head struck the hard floor. Tony didn’t move.

“I warned you,” Natasha snarled, and leapt at Darin. He caught her around the throat. She flinched in pain as his hand gripped around her burns, but she didn’t let it phase her. She brought her knee up with as much force as she could muster, and she slammed it into his elbow with a satisfying pop. He dropped her with a cry of pain. Nat grabbed his hair and forced his head downward as she brought her knee up. She felt his nose pop and give on impact. Before he had time to recover, she kicked his knee and he went down. As he fell she pulled the gun from his holster and expertly shot him three times before he hit the ground.

She didn’t even bother making sure he was dead before rushing to where Tony still lay in a limp heap.

“Please don’t be dead,” Nat cried urgently as she pulled him into her arms.

“Not gonna get rid of me that easy,” Tony mumbled as Nat lifted his head.

“We have to get out of here.”

“Yeah,” Tony coughed a little, “Problem…”

He moved his hand away from where it had been clutching his chest to reveal blood smeared on his hand, and soaking through his shirt.

“Shit,” Nat swore and clamped her hand over the wound.

“I think the magic juice is wearing off,” Tony mumbled weakly, a faint mist of red escaped his lips as he spoke.

“Yep,” Nat confirmed, “We gotta get you out of here.”

“Yeah huh,” Tony muttered as she pulled his arm over her shoulder.

“Come on,” Nat urged and hauled Tony up.

“I’m not gonna make it out,” Tony coughed.

“You have to,” Nat urged.

Tony shook his head, “We have to get to the lab…”

“No we have to get you out of here.”

“That’s not going to happen unless I get more extremis,” Tony replied, it was obvious speaking was a struggle.

“Okay, fine. Which way  to the lab?” Nat asked as they pushed their way out into the hallway.

“Left,” Tony choked.

She could feel him leaning more and more weight on her shoulder with each step.

An explosion of some kind exploded above them, and shook the building. Natasha almost lost her footing and fell over, but she managed to steady them using the wall.

“What was that?” Tony mumbled, as he spoke a string of blood dripped from his mouth and spattered on the floor.

“Shit,” Nat hissed, “Hang in there Tony.”

A second explosion shook the structure, and this time a voice came over a loudspeaker.

“Compound self destruct in ten minutes. Not a drill. Evacuate or die.”

“That doesn’t sound good,” Tony mumbled, and broke off into a fit of coughing, and his full weight came down on Natasha. She almost fell over trying ease him gently to the ground.

“Tony?” Nat pleaded as his eyes sank closed, “Come on stay with me.”

“You gotta go,” Tony mumbled.

“Not without you.”

She could see blood pooling between Tony’s fingers.

“You have too,” Tony choked.

“No way. Where is lab?”

Tony shook his head.

“Tony!”

“Two..do-down… doors…” Tony mumbled through the blood filling his mouth, “Left…”

“I will be right back,” Nat assured him.

She hated the idea of leaving Tony behind, but there was no way she was getting him up, and all the way down to the lab. She would have to bring the Extremis to him.

 


	6. Foot steps to freedom

A blast wave like nothing Steve had ever felt blasted from the building, and blew out every window, and the walls of the building seemed to explode outward. Steve barely managed to get behind his shield before the heat and wind hit him, and blasted him into the side of a car. He recovered, ears still ringing just in time to see the whole building crumble and go down as a ball of flame raised into the sky.

“No!” Steve managed to haul himself to his feet and leap forward.

Rhodey landed in front of him and grabbed him.

“Rogers stop!”

“Nat was in there!” Steve cried.

“It isn’t safe to go in there yet,” Rhodey argued as Steve threw his full weight against the War Machine armor.

“We have to get her out of there!” Steve cried.

“I’m sorry Steve,” Rhodey apologized as he continued to hold him back.

Steve knew there was no point in going in now. No one could have survived the explosion. He collapsed a little more than he meant to into Rhodey’s shoulder as pain and grief struck him like a bat to the stomach.

“Look!” Wanda  shouted in surprise.

Steve looked up, and Rhodey turned around. Someone was walking toward them through the smoke. Steve broke away from Rhodey to rush forward.

 

Tony cradled Natasha close to him as he worked his way slowly through the flaming debris of the building. He could feel heat crawling through his body as he got closer to the group of people huddled in a small group that he hoped  was the Avengers. It was taking every spare ounce of his strength to keep the heat from the Extremis that Nat had injected him with at bay. He had to keep it back just until they reached safety. Just long enough so he wouldn’t burn her, and her hurt worse than she already was.

“Nat!” 

Tony heard a familiar shout, and Steve materialized through the thick smoke. The man stopped dead, shock written all over his smoke stained face.

“She’s fine,” Tony drawled, “Just a little banged up.”

“But you…” Steve choked in shock.

“Take her,” Tony growled, “Please.”

He didn’t have the strength to hold the flames back any more.

Steve obediently took Nat from his arms.

“Get her help…” Tony mumbled, “I’m right behind you.”

Steve hovered for a second before turning around. Tony tried to follow him, but ended up collapsing. Pain seared through his body, and his attempts to scream died in his throat. The Extremis was burning itself out, and it was killing him. Tony could feel all of his muscles clenching and tightening as the fire burned through his core. His vision blurred as the white hot pain pounded through his body. He choked on the air burning in his throat.

“Tony!” A cold metal hand slid under his head, and lifted him up, “I got you buddy.”

Tony managed to focus his gaze just enough to make out that it was Rhodey holding him up.

“Might not wanna do that,” Tony mouthed.

“I know what I’m doing Tony,” Rhodey replied softly.

 

“Colonel he is reaching critical core temperature,” Friday spoke in Rhodey’s ear as he cradled Tony in his arms.

Rhodey could feel the heat rising off Tony’s body, even through the suit.

“What happened?” Rhodey demanded urgently.

“Extremis…” Tony choked.

“We’re going to get you somewhere safe,” Rhodey promised.

Tony shook his head a little.

“Just hang in there,” Rhodey begged.

“It’ll burn out…” Tony muttered as he closed his eyes.

Rhodey could see the evil orange glow pumping through his friend’s veins. 

“What do you mean?” Rhodey demanded.

“Give me a minute,” Tony choked.

“His temperature is holding steady,” Friday informed Rhodey, “The extremis appears to thinning out.”

Tony groaned in pain, and the orange glow weakened.

“Bullet wound…” Tony gagged, “Hospital…”

“What?” Rhodey cried frantically as Tony’s body convulsed in his arms. He could no longer feel the heat rising from Tony’s body, but there was something else very.

“Hospital…” Tony choked, and blood dripped out of his mouth.

“Shit!” Rhodey swore, and Tony flopped back in his arms.

“A wound is opening in his chest cavity. I am detecting internal bleeding, and damage to the heart,” Friday said urgently in Rhodey’s ear.

“Everyone regroup at the hospital,” Rhodey ordered into the comms as he lifted Tony into his arms and launched himself into the sky.

He had been convinced his friend was dead, and now that he wasn’t… Rhodey wasn’t going to let him die. Not now that he could actually do something to save his friend.

 

By the time Rhodey touched down at the closest hospital blood was already pooling on Tony’s chest, and dripping down, splattering on Rhodey’s suit.

“Hey! Someone! Help!” Rhodey shouted as he burst into the emergency room, Tony dangling lifelessly from his arms.

“What happened?” A nurse rushed to his side with a gurney.

“Gunshot wound. Grazed his heart… I-I think,” Rhodey stammered.

“How long ago?” She asked urgently.

“I- I don’t know,” Rhodey stammered and tried to follow as they pushed the stretcher away from him.

“It’s okay,” The nurse assured him, “But you have to stay out here.”

Rhodey watched helplessly as Tony disappeared through the doors of the hospital.


	7. Mending the severed bond

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Final chapter guys!

Nat woke up with soft sheets pressing around her, and some form of cool bandages wrapped around her burns. She sat up a little and attempted to get out of bed, but a gentle hand reached out and stopped her.

“Lay back down Nat,” Steve said gently.

Natasha looked over at him in confusion, “How?”

“We’re at the compound. Rhodey is keeping it all quiet so you can heal properly with out us having to evade arrest,” Steve explained.

“No. How am I… the building-” Nat stammered, attempting to get her thoughts in order.

“Tony carried you out.”

Natasha sat up with a jolt.

“Is he okay?!”

“He is still in surgery,” Steve informed her quietly, and pushed her back down, “You need to take it easy. You were pretty banged up. What happened? They said not all your burns were from the explosion.”

Nat flinched at the memory of staring into Tony’s cold glowing eyes as he had burned her with his bare hands. No one needed to know what he had done, especially because it hadn’t been his fault.

“They’re wrong. It was all from the explosion.”

“I know you are lying, but okay.”

“Do you know how he’s doing at the moment?” Nat asked, changing the subject.

“They transferred him here last night once they had him stable, and they called in a cardio specialist, Dr. Wu.”

Nat made her 3rd attempt to sit up in surprise.

“If they called him in?! That means this is really bad!” Nat cried.

Steve forced her back down, “I’m sure he’s going to be fine. They probably just called Dr. Wu in as extra insurance.”

Natasha eyed Steve nervously. She could tell by the way he was holding himself that he wasn’t sure of he said, and even that there was something he wasn’t telling her.

 

Later in the day, after Steve had gotten up to find lunch, Natasha finally decided to risk sneaking out of bed, to see what she could find out about Tony’s condition. She managed to sneak unnoticed all the way to the waiting room area of the infirmary. There she discovered Rhodey sitting with Pepper asleep on his shoulder, and Happy and some teen sitting side by side. Rhodey looked up as Natasha limped into the room.

“What’s the word?” Natasha whispered trying extra hard not to wake Pepper. She was sure sleep hadn’t come easily for her. 

“They don’t know much.The bullet clipped his heart, and then got lost somewhere. They think it ricocheted inside of him,” Rhodey replied mournfully.

“How long has been under?” Natasha asked and slipped into the chair next to him, that wasn’t being occupied by Pepper.

“The better part of 13 hours. Last we heard it was touch and go,” Rhodey replied in solemn reserve, “And how are you doing?”

Natasha sighed, “Pretty well… considering…”

Rhodey nodded slowly.

“What did they do to him?” Rhodey questioned after a moment of silence, “They sent us a picture of his dead body…”

“They shot him, and he… his heart stopped, and they… they took him and somehow brought him back with some form of extremis,” Nat explained as well as she could. She still wasn’t sure exactly what they had done to him.

 

Tony woke up to find himself not burning from the inside out, nor bleeding to death and choking.

"Hey sweetie."

Tony turned his head and found Pepper sitting in a chair next to his bed.

"Hey Pepp…" he muttered and closed his eyes again. He may not have been burning from the inside out any more, but he still felt sick and weak. Slight pain throbbed painfully in his chest, "what happened?"

Pepper sighed, "you got shot, and were in surgery for about 15 hours," She explained.

"Sorry I scared you…" Tony managed to wheeze, despite not really wanting to speak.

"They… who ever did this they sent us…" Pepper trailed off, "You're okay now."

Tony nodded a little. He wasn't entirely convinced she was right.

"Nat okay?" He remembered passing her off to Steve, and after that everything was fuzzy.

"Yeah. She was a little beat up, but she's fine," Pepper replied.

"They leave?" Tony asked; he was pretty sure he already knew the answer. They would have had to have left to avoid being arrested by Ross. They weren't safe here. He hated that they left him again, but understood why they had too. They had to keep themselves safe, and that was all that mattered.

"Some of them."

Tony yanked his head up at the sound of Natasha's voice. She was leaning against the door frame.

"You…" Tony trailed off as she came to stand next to him, "why?"

She rested her hand on his arm.

"I couldn't leave until I knew you were going to be okay," Natasha replied, "Steve and Sam left shortly after you got out of surgery. Steve thought you wouldn't want to see him when you woke up."

Tony scoffed. The captain hadn't been completely wrong.

"Thanks for staying," Tony mumbled and closed his eyes again, exhaustion was starting to creep in on Tony.

"Of course," Nat's voice was muffled and distant as Tony slipped out of consciousness. He hoped she was still there when he woke up, but he didn't think she would be.

 

"You know staying much longer is a big risk. We can't keep you protected from Ross for very much longer," Pepper said quietly.

"I know," Natasha replied, "But I can't go. Not now."

She couldn't with a clear conscience leave him without a proper good-bye. He may have been brain washed and racked up on rage inducing Extremis, but Natasha knew that there had been truth in his burning rage, and it had was both understandable, and justified.

Pepper nodded in understanding, "It means a lot."

"What happened after we left?" Natasha asked slowly, as looked Tony up and down. He still looked pale and weak from the surgery.

Pepper sighed and pushed the bedraggled hair out of Tony's face. Her hand lingered on his cheek, and she turned her gaze back to Natasha.

"He came home from Siberia, and um…" Pepper trailed off, "It was bad. Not so much physically, but mentally."

Natasha ducked her head in guilt.

"I'm sorry," Nat whispered.

"Turns out being abandoned by the better half of your friends to deal with a literal world of problems has a negative impact on one's mental health," Pepper scoffed a little, and slid Tony's hand into hers, "But he got better."

"I'm not going to leave again," Natasha repeated, "At least not without his permission."

She knew it would quite likely mean her arrest, but she didn't care. She didn't want to hurt him again.

 

When Tony woke up again he found that Natasha had replaced Pepper at his bedside.

"Where'd Pepper go?" Tony mumbled.

"She went to get lunch, I already ate so I offered to stick around," Nat explained.

"And Rhodey?"

"He dropped by earlier, but had to leave to deal with the press.”

“So it’s just us?” Tony asked. He had a few things he wanted to say before she left, probably for good.

“Yes it’s just us,” Natasha replied.

Tony nodded, “Are you going to tell anyone what I did?”

Natasha shook her head, “No. It wasn’t you. They mind controlled you. No one needs to know what happened in that room.”

“I’m sorry,” Tony whispered.

“No. It wasn’t your fault. If anyone needs to apologize it’s me,” Natasha stated, looking him in the eyes with pure sincerity.

“Why would you apologise?” Tony croaked. Her apologising made no sense at all.

“Because I turned my back you when you needed people to back you. We all did. We all left you. We should have stayed and tried to work things out. It shouldn’t have gotten to Siberia,” Natasha replied.

“But it was my fault. I tore us apart,” Tony rasped.

“No Tony. We all did. No one communicated. The blame falls on all of us, and you just tried to keep us together, and we made it impossible,” Natasha stated, not exactly saying it wasn’t his fault, just saying that all the blame didn’t fall on him, and yet it made him feel better.

“Thank you,” Tony mused, “Are you going to leave?”

Natasha squirmed in her chair a little.

“I will stay if you need me too.” 

“I don’t think that will really do either of us any good,” Tony admitted, “You’ll just get arrested, and then you won’t be able to help, and you still won’t be here.”

“Are you saying I should go?”

Tony sighed. He wanted the old team back so desperately. He wanted Bruce and Thor back on Earth, and he wanted Rogers, Barton, and Nat back. He wanted his old family back, but he had to let them go, for their own safety.

“Yes. That’s what I am saying.”

“I’ll be back when you need me,” Natasha replied with a grateful smile.

“I’ll give you a call when something comes up,” Tony replied giving her a light bump with his fist.

“I’ll be sure to answer,” Nat replied with a smile, and stood up, “I should probably go then.”

“Sooner the better type thing?”

Nat nodded, “thank you for everything you’ve done for us.”

“Don’t forget about me,” Tony mumbled as she turned to go.

Natasha turned and stopped in the doorway.

“Never.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for baring with me! Hope that wasn't a lame ending.


End file.
